Reiner Stahel

Reiner Stahel (15 January 1892-30 November 1955) was a Lieutenant-General of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Biography
Reiner Stahel was born on 15 January 1892 in Bielefeld, Westphalia, German Empire. Stahel served in World War I with the Imperial German Army before fighting in the Finnish Civil War with the Finnish Army, and in 1933 he returned to Nazi Germany after being a Lieutenant-General in Finland. Stahel commanded anti-air regiments during World War II, while in October 1943 he was given command of the garrison of Rome and becoming the commandant of Vilnius in July 1944. Stahel delayed the Red Army and Polish Underground's advance on Vilnius, and he was promoted to Lieutenant-General for his defense of the city. He was then transferred to the Polish capital of Warsaw, and he was the initial commander of the Wehrmacht forces in Warsaw before Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsi superseded him as commander during the Warsaw Uprising and crushed the Home Army's rebellion. On 24 August 1944, rather than be recalled, he was sent to Bucharest, where urban fighting with the Soviet Union was anticipated. However, he was captured on 20 September 1944 by the NKVD after Bucharest was liberated by the Soviets, and he died in the Voikovo prison camp in the USSR in 1955.